Most immersive Speccy game?

[stupidget]

Having just read through @spider 's excellent post about The Hobbit on other systems it got me thinking about the most immersive Speccy games. When I first played The Hobbit i was utterly engrossed and felt completely immersed in the Tolkien world. I would also say that Valhalla made me feel like I was sat watching a real world unfold before my very eyes with characters coming and going and seemingly living their lives. So what other games whisked you lot away too far flung galaxies and worlds BITD?

[luny]

The obvious choice for me was TirNaNog and Dun Darach. The scrolling / rotating map gave the game world a real depth.
Event though it is only text, Snowball by Level 9 made me feel I was living a Larry Niven style sci-fi adventure at the time.

[Ast A. Moore]

I remember playing Savage II and literally swaying right and left and bobbing my head to dodge the projectiles flying into my face. Couldn’t get any more immersive than that.

[p13z]

Playing Aliens as a kid, with a mate, in a darkened room.

edit to say: The Great Escape probably deserves a mention too.

[flatduckrecords]

My 7-year-old imagination was captured immediately by Ant Attack's Walled City of Antescher.

"The City seems to have a presence, a huge brooding entity which hangs over the buildings and which in some mysterious way controls the destiny of those below…"

It still resonates with me now, I love it.

[spider]

Excellent idea for a topic (and thanks for your kind comments too)

Have to concur with Dun Darach , Ant Attack and Great Escape.

Also I found (I was young then!) Urban Upstart also quite absorbing. The Hobbit obviously but the spoof The Boggit also springs to mind as does Project X Microman

I would maybe suggest Where Time Stood Still , although its not a game I played that much myself.

Skooldaze/BackToSkool spring to mind too.

[worcestersource]

Back in the day, I was really into Bloodwych. And anything by Julian Gollop.

Where Time Stood Still was truly amazing.

Oh, and Star Raiders II, especially as the enemy ships exploded!

Steve

[XTM]

I would maybe suggest Where Time Stood Still , although its not a game I played that much myself.

Skooldaze/BackToSkool spring to mind too.

Yeah, those three are great. I played WTSS lots, it was also very scary especially on the 2nd half of the map after the river, with the constant threat of losing a team member.

The Skool games were cool, though the first one felt a bit like a prison. I liked just sitting in the classroom and watching the dialogue between the teacher asking questions and Einstein answering them, hadn't seen anything like that (and the rest of the game of course) anywhere else.

[clebin]

edit to say: The Great Escape probably deserves a mention too.

That was my first thought. I'll never forget how blown away I was playing it for the first time. The sense of danger and exhilaration as you go off route, followed by the jump-scare as the Commandant appears in the room. The night time is particularly atmospheric, just the simple change of colour and of course the search lights, wandering around while the other prisoners sleep, the guards who wait in your room towards the end of the night, then "Another Day Dawns" and the flag lowers a little. What a masterpiece.

Back 2 Skool would be another that I got completely absorbed in. As I recall, neither tape loaded on my +2 and I had to dig out the 48k to play them which somehow added to their mystique.

[PeterJ]

@stupidget, I hope you will allow me to slightly stray, and mention a ZX81 game. Only because this was my first computer. It was 3D Monster Maze. I remember really feeling like I was in that maze and my life was in danger.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/2 ... nster_Maze

Obviously not the depth of other games mentioned, but I was completely engrossed.

[Morkin]

I found Avalon and Dragontorc oozing with atmosphere and lore, really helped me 'feel' the environment of the wooded areas and the caverns and tombs hiding beneath them. It seems that the creatures wandering around all have their own personalities (which they do, in a way).

The hidden computer movement in 1-player Laser Squad made the scenarios feel tense for me - whether attacking or defending. Really feels like you're commanding a set of trained mercenaries, where any wrong step could spell disaster for the whole squad. Particularly on the scenario where you're trying to get your squad across the swamp, nervously keeping your eyes peeled for the aliens (Venomous Splurges) hiding the bushes.

The winner though, for me, has to be Elite - an utterly absorbing game. Whenever I pick it up I seem to (still) play it for ages. The solitude and peacefulness of deep space juxtaposed with the tension when you start getting multiple blips on your radar. Despite not having any other actual characters/NPCs in the game, it feels as if you're locked in a battle of wills and tactics with the other pilots.

[Jbizzel]

Cyclone.

[Matt_B]

Lords of Midnight has to be worth a shout.

One of the things I liked about it was the way it presented most of the status information as though it was a passage from a fantasy novel, rather than just giving you the bare numbers and indicators.

The way you can move and look around the entire map right from the start also somewhat anticipated the later trend in open world games.

[Vampyre]

One of the first games I ever played on my Speccy - The Oracle's Cave. The random layout each time and the lovely fight scenes where you were never quite sure what the outcome would be made it such an atmospheric title. Has a soft-spot in my heart, that game.

And being as Peter started the non-Speccy games - Dungeon Master on the ST. It just dripped atmosphere.

[bluespikey]

Shadowfire. It was so far beyond anything else I'd seen on the Spectrum at that time, I thought it had some sort of poke to make the Spectrum more powerful. And the chunky manual with the illustrations of team members. The game had a lot of character. I built the entire Zoff V out of lego. I even wrote Shadowfire fan fiction.

Still never remembered to pick up the bloody teleport pad after use though.

[stupidget]

The obvious ones for me would be text adventures and RPG's but some of the not so obvious ones would be:

1 - Fairlight. This just oozed character and I always thought that there was stuff going on in other screens apart from the one I was in. Soldiers and trolls just milling about waiting for me.

2 - Head over Heals - Not just one of my favourites game of all time but one where I actually cared about the characters and to me it felt like I was actually responsible for what was happening.

3 - Mugsy - I remember my Dad's mate bought this and I even back then I thought the graphics were amazing and just looked like gangster films from the 50's

4 - Deus ex Machina - I can't think of any other game (then or now) that used audio in a such a clever and immersive way. Genius.

[toot_toot]

Couple games spring to mind, both completely different in how they made a feeling of immersion.

First is Armageddon Man by Martech. It came in a large double tape plastic box which in addition to the game, contained a large poster and a series of flag stickers representing the different nations in the game



The game was about being a sort of global ambassador trying to keep the different nations happy with each other and preventing war from occurring and promoting economic growth. Because it came with the map and stickers, it meant you could get an easy visual representation of it, but having something physical added to the immersion. Plus, I always played it like I was in a space station over the earth, listening in on the communications and trying to make people get along with each other made it such an immersive experience.

On the other hand, you had Hacker by Activision where the instructions were literally this:

Other computer games often have lengthy instructions to explain how
the game is played.

Hacker(tm) is not like other computer games.

We've told you how to load the program: the rest is up to you. A
real-life hacker would proceed by trial and error: and that's how you
play this game. The only tip we give you is, don't play Hacker(tm)
like a standard adventure. You'll get further, faster, if you just try
things out, instead of trying to decide what the next most logical
step would be.

So start hacking!

That was it, you had to work out the rest. But as the game involved you hacking into an unknown system, it was so immersive. Great fun!

[Chris23235]

Sherlock with its real time mechnaisms gave me a great feeling of immersion. Being able to walk around freely in a world that follows its own time schedule fascinated me.

[stupidget]

Couple games spring to mind, both completely different in how they made a feeling of immersion.

First is Armageddon Man by Martech. It came in .....

I was forced to have this game by that infernal Britannia Computer Club!! If you didn't choose your monthly game in time they would send you that months 'Editors Choice' which was, surprise surprise, the most expensive game for that month!!!

All I did in Armageddon Man was try to start as many nuclear wars as possible because I like watching the mushroom cloud animation on the world map

[zup]

I was going to throw some jokes about "The Deep", "Scuba Dive" and other underwater titles...

So, I'd suggest a 50% joke - 50% truth... Silent Service. And another non-underwater title: F-19 Stealth Fighter.

Thinking about that, most "late" simulation game were very immersive, having to cope with different systems (i.e.: Gunship) and having to be aware of your environment (both Gunship and F-19 Stealth Fighter).

[PeteProdge]

This is easily Sim City, isn't it? A surprisingly decent conversion for the Speccy (though I'll be honest, as soon as I got my Amiga, I played it natively on there and yeah, of course it's better with a mouse).

I played it for an entire summer, and it was a while before I stumbled across the hints and tips about getting the city really optimal - forming the roads on a 'tennis racket' layout to relieve congestion. When I did that, my scores sky rocketed, but ultimately I was just recreating Milton Keynes, and that's when the fun evaporated for me (as anyone who has visited that town* can attest).

* = Now an actual city as of, um, right now: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/h ... 82967.html

[Tan Coul]

Deathchase - I became one with the bike, weaving through trees in pursuit of my quarry.

[Thompson]

Definitely Pete Cooke's Tau Ceti/Academy duo and of course Julian Gollop's Rebel Star and Laser Squad.
Honorable mentions: Elite

[Sham Mountebank]

Yes to Elite, Dun Darach, Ant Attack, The Great Escape, and Aliens.

Honourable mentions to Sabre Wulf and Star Quake. I liked the attention to detail of using different graphics for different parts of the map. It would have been easy to make the whole maze out of plant graphics, and it wouldn't have affected the gameplay, but the mountains round the edge really gave a sense of moving into different areas and progressing through a "real" place. I remember it was exciting the first time I saw the mountains.
Star Quake was the same, with different graphical styles for different areas; there's a metallic bit; an area with vegetation; a more rocky area, and so on. Having said all that, I've just reminded myself of the different worlds in Head Over Heels, so that too.

[luny]

Yes to Elite, Dun Darach, Ant Attack, The Great Escape, and Aliens.

Honourable mentions to Sabre Wulf and Star Quake. I liked the attention to detail of using different graphics for different parts of the map. It would have been easy to make the whole maze out of plant graphics, and it wouldn't have affected the gameplay, but the mountains round the edge really gave a sense of moving into different areas and progressing through a "real" place. I remember it was exciting the first time I saw the mountains.
Star Quake was the same, with different graphical styles for different areas; there's a metallic bit; an area with vegetation; a more rocky area, and so on. Having said all that, I've just reminded myself of the different worlds in Head Over Heels, so that too.

Nodes of Yesod and the sequel were just like those in the use of different background graphics to excited areas. I like the idea of Valhalla, with the different background and buildings. If it was written in code and not basic that could have been quite impressive and immersive.